Wolf Song
by QuirkyKirsty
Summary: Reincarnation is one thing, but it doesn't usually involve rolling a d100 on a table you can't even see the contents of... let alone waking up in Ylisse, stuck as a half-shifted laguz. Why can't I figure out how to shift back...? Please let this be the good timeline...! (SI/OC)
1. Chapter 1

Title: Wolf Song

Fandom: FE: Awakening

Rating: T

Wolf Song

.

* * *

I.

* * *

.

There were still screams ringing in my ears. The harsh grating of metal, the crash of shattering glass, but above all the overpowering feeling _feardisbeliefshockpain _still coursing through every nerve in my body— as I found myself standing in a dark room, alone.

Dark might be an understatement. All I could see was pure black, no indication of dimensions, or even where wall met floor. It was… disconcerting. My heart continued to beat at an elevated pace, but as the sudden silence stretched, the adrenaline ran out, and the sharp panic subsided. The screams and chaos faded to a muted background. Somehow I felt that I should feel more… concerned? With the fact, but oddly I couldn't bring myself to attach any kind of emotion to the feelings, in itself another concerning fact, but.

There was light shining into the dark… room. A crack off to the side, spilling pure white light from beyond. After a moment of hesitation—I still didn't know what was going on here, exactly— I decided nothing else was going to happen, and moved towards the light with some trepidation.

Some kind of door, though the door was indistinct; just an oddly angled patch of black, and the sliver of light. There was nothing beyond that I could see, as I squinted through the crack, just a whole lot of white and nothing much else. Until, caught in indecision, someone made the decision for me, and called out from beyond.

"Come on in, then," said a gender-indeterminate voice with a small note of impatience, "I might have all of eternity, but there are still appointments to keep and this is the one bit of fun I get every now and then."

…Wasn't sure how I felt about that, but seeing as whoever it was knew I was there anyway… I stuck a foot through the crack and edged nervously through.

The room beyond, if it even could be called that, wasn't a whole lot different from the dark room in that this time it was a whole lot of white and not much else. What it did have was a table, polished wood with velvety top, and an empty stool on my side. On the other side was a… person. I think. It was a person, but an utterly nondescript one, so plain and unassuming that I couldn't really read anything from them, not the style of clothes—robes?— they had on, or the details of their face. They just were.

They were sitting opposite on the other side of the table, shuffling a few papers as I warily approached the stool and, for lack of anything better to do, sat.

"Um," I started, but couldn't say much else as the, person… the… the, Other, reached with one hand and offered something across the table. I held my hand out on some sort of autopilot and they dropped two small items into my palm.

"Go ahead and roll," the Other said— looking down, I saw that I now held a pair of d10's— two ten-sided dice. Presumably. All the numbers were worn away, leaving behind blank facets. I rolled anyway. The dice clattered across the table's velveteen surface, and when they stopped I thought I could see a flicker of something on their surfaces, but then I blinked and all I saw was blank, pale ivory. The Other, though, they hummed and scribbled something down on a pad of paper.

"One of those, huh," they muttered, "Let's see. Go ahead and roll again."

I took the dice, but didn't do as they said right away.

"Where am I?" I asked, and the Other finally looked at me.

"Oh? You're lucid already? Nice," they said, and seemed giddy by this. Then, they were somber. "Unfortunately there's no better way to put this, but… I'm afraid you've been in a pretty bad accident."

I… should have had a reaction to that. Something. Anything. Instead I sat there, feeling numb, with a pair of dice cradled in my hand trying to process the words.

"_What?"_ I said, gratified by the way my voice cracked because I shouldn't feel this calm. Again, faded screams and grating metal in my ears, as well as something new— uncontrollable shivers through my body, there and gone again. The Other shrugged.

"Sorry," they said, "You can't go back. As for your question… well, you're sort of in-between right now, which is the best way I can put it seeing as how knowing it doesn't really mean anything in the long run. Lucky you, though— you're my one in a billion today. Go ahead and roll."

I promptly tilted my hand and let the dice fall again. The Other hummed. "Alright then. So this instance is…" They proceeded to flip a coin that hadn't been there before. Both sides were as worn and featureless as the dice, but whatever side it landed on only prompted more scribbles.

"Am I _dead?" _I whispered, while the Other just… shrugged again.

"Well… yes. For now."

"I don't… what happened? Why can't I feel anything?" The last bit was with a bit of a hysterical edge, but just as the panic seemed to take hold it was just… gone. Subdued, pushed into the background.

"Because I don't like to be cruel," the Other said, and they seemed almost halfway sad. "I'm not doing anyone a favor letting them live through their last moments, especially the ones like yours."

"But…"

"I've suppressed the memories and emotions. It'll wear off eventually, but at least by then you'll be off and able to come to terms with it."

Whether due to the fact that my emotions were apparently being suppressed, I somehow skipped over the first part of the sentence and latched onto the second.

"Why am I here, then? What's happening? Am I—" I shot a glance at the table, and fixed on the dice in particular with a bit of dawning recollection. "Wait, d10's? Am I rolling a d100?"

"Got it in one! I like getting to talk a bit. Lightens up the monotony. We're just figuring out your placement."

"What, for… for… what?" No, I wasn't really the best conversationalist right now.

"Well," said the Other—they were looking at papers, reference one to another in both hands. "The first was _Where. _The second was _Which. _And if you roll again, we'll find out the _What, _always the fun part."

Okay. Okay. I held off on rolling for a third time despite the Other's tutting, and this time held the dice in a white-knuckled grip. "So, if. If I'm dead, which I'll take your word for seeing as nothing about this seems right, but I'll be 'off' eventually, is this… is this some weird reincarnation thing? Am I… moving on?"

"More like you're getting shuffled around a little," said the Other, "As for reincarnation… well, this is more a twist on it."

"What's the point of all this then?" I asked with a little bit of more panic—that, too seemed to deflate without my say so— "Am I still going to be… me? I'm just going to start over somewhere else, won't I forget all this?"

"Normally that's the case, yes, and we wouldn't be going through this at all. As you say, what would be the point? But," they snagged a third sheet from the pile, "As I said, you're my one in a billion today. Sometimes I look down on the material plane, and think, 'you know, that's just supremely unfair. Someone should give them a second shot at this thing.' So I arrange this. You won't be going back to Earth, mind you. Not your Earth. That chapter is done."

"I…" …felt dizzy. Looking at the dice, though, under the Other's expectant gaze, the sheets of paper, and the velvet table, something clicked, and I forced a laugh as I came to the realization.

"So is this. Is this like DnD? Am I literally rolling to Reincarnate?"

"You play?" They seemed delighted. "That's exactly right."

"Wait, for real? You're serious?"

"Bit of a new method for me. Before I had a spinning wheel from this gameshow I liked, but it seemed to upset folks a tad, so I switched to this. Adds a little more mystique. Only took a bit of modification. Plus, I like the sound of the dice when they hit the table."

"So there's a chance I'm gonna be a dragonborn or something?"

"Not in this case, no," came the casual answer. That said, they looked at my hand a bit impatiently. "Are you going to roll, or…? This is the best part."

"Why? What's going to happen?" I said a little sharply; the Other just rolled their eyes.

"That's for me to know and you to find out, isn't it? Go ahead and roll."

I rolled. My muscles twitched, and the dice fell once more from my hand. The thud as they hit the table felt louder, more ominous than the other two times as they spun and clicked together and… stopped.

"Ooh. That's fun." The pale smile stretching across the Other's face… I shuddered and averted my eyes from the sight. They didn't ask me to roll a fourth time, so the pair of dice lay there in the silence as they finished scribbling on their pad of paper. Nodded, signed some sort of signature on the bottom. I swallowed, licked my dry lips to speak.

"Now what?"

"I'll send you on your way," the Other said simply.

"That's it?"

"All I have the time for, really."

"What did I roll though? There's no numbers. I don't even know what table I'm rolling on—"

"Shh." They held up a hand, tore the paper they'd been writing on off, held it out to me. "Well, here's your ticket. I wish you the best of luck this time around. I drew from your interests for this one, so don't worry— it won't be nearly so foreign once you settle in."

I took the ticket. Couldn't bring myself to do otherwise.

"I don't understand," I said, feeling that I needed to cry, but also finding that the act was blocked by so-called emotional dampers. The Other clasped their hands together, and smiled a sad little smile.

"They never do," they said.

Then they clapped once.

As if a hook had materialized in my navel, my stomached dropped as I felt a very strong _pull. _The stool was jerked out from under me, and the last thing I saw was the table rushing up to meet my face in a blur of brown and green that. In any other circumstance my face would have smashed straight into it…

Instead everything just went black.

.

* * *

.

Crow in my face.

I blinked. We stared each other down for scant moment, maintaining eye contact until suddenly it was gone in a burst of feathers, winging its way upwards into a cloudless blue sky. I stayed still, fighting back what felt an awful lot like motion sickness.

The black and white rooms. The… Other. I couldn't remember a thing, but apparently I'd… died… shoot, if something was still blocking me from feeling anything real about that, it had to be the reason why all I could think of was how I'd rolled dice with a random omniscient being who liked dnd of all things. Instead of the screams from before, now all I could hear was the phantom _thud _of dice against the surface of the table top and the shuffle of paper as they checked mysterious tables.

…Dungeons and Dragons, Reincarnate… wait, wait, I'd barely given any thought to implications, if the Other had really been inspired by the actual game. Reincarnate was a transmutation spell. It took the soul of a dead being, and put that soul into a new body with memories and age intact, but the catch was that you had to roll on the table for a… new… body…that… wasn't necessarily human…

This time—finally, alarmingly— my spike of panic was _very _real. I surged to my feet and… stumbled back into the thick green grass I'd been lying in. As I braced my arms under me to steady myself, I found that instead of the hands I was expecting, I found two paws.

Two

Furry

Paws.

…

_WHAT. _

…is what I wanted to stay, rather what I meant to say, because instead I got a strangled sort of "_Whaarf?" _ in a decidedly not human voice—I didn't have a human mouth. There was a snout down between my eyes instead of a _nose_. No, no no, this wasn't happening, this wasn't— _but it was. _On further checking— two paws under me. Swiveling around and struggling to do so, two paws behind me, as well as an entire pelt between front and back. Beyond that, a tail thumped against the ground.

Was I. Was I a _dog? _What the _hell _kind of table had I rolled on that included a _dog _option? Animals weren't even supposed to be an option! It was supposed to be a sentient humanoid race and not… _this! _

Maybe this wasn't real. Maybe there was still a chance this was a hallucination of some sort. Carefully, on trembling legs, I braced myself and stood. Not being able to stand as nearly tall as I should have, though, well… that cinched it. Standing only a few feet above the ground, this was absolutely not a hallucination.

…that, and phantom height syndrome was a thing, apparently.

Right. So. I was, for all intents and purposes… a dog. Well. Canine of some kind, anyway. I'd be getting a look at myself the first chance I could; right now all I could confirm was that I was definitely a dark furred… something, craning around and trying to take in as much of my new self as I could. Definitely wasn't a golden retriever; my fur seemed too course to be any sort of recognizable dog breed.

I wagged my tail, slowly and hesitantly. Stamped back and forth on my paws, crushing the grass beneath them as I trotted in place, then jumped in a few small circles. Definitely felt, uh, bouncier? And more limber. Well, Reincarnate meant you just took on the skills and traits of the new race you assumed, so... I guess it counted for something that I could even move as well as I seemed to be right now.

Man, I _really _should be freaking out _way _more than this.

I ended up sitting on my haunches instead— the motion wasn't even hard, given the entire new muscle groups and nervous system I was running on now— and just… spaced out. Stopped thinking about everything. Just sat there and breathed through my nose, nostrils flaring as I took in the scents all around me… Ah. I was currently experience a much higher sensory range than I had as a human being range right now, alerting me to the fact that not only was I in an unfamiliar body, but that said body was in a very, very unfamiliar place right now.

A meadow. Or maybe some kind of plain, as all the stretched out before me was a wide, wide field of green. Trees cropped up here and there, and in the distance I could see hills. Wind rippled through the grasses, sending up the occasional cloud of dandelion fluff. Little flowers bobbed and weaved, a multitude of reds and blues and yellows— uhh, hold up, should I being seeing those? I distinctly remembered that dogs didn't have the same color range, and I was seeing a whole lot of green and yellow, here. The thought was pushed away— movement ahead. Much further ahead. My nose twitched, and ears flicked forward as I saw the tail-end of a rabbit disappear through a tuft of grass; no, I saw a blob of movement even after that. This was… some yards away, but I could already tell the difference between the rustle of grass in the wind from the rustle of a small body thumping away from me, and in my brain I'd already logged the particular scent of _hare. _

That was on top of the scent of absolutely everything else. The grass itself, in several different types, the soil it grew from, rich and earthy and here and there with a hint of clay… the dandelions, the sweet scents of the other flowers I didn't know. I could smell just about _everything. _It was… actually sort of cool.

Maybe… this wasn't so bad, I thought. I mean. I was still alive, right? Whereas before I'd been… _dead, _right? The sound of bird wings high above brought my attention up, noting the position of the sun in the sky. Squinting from the light I estimated it was probably noon or a little after? As nice as it was not moving, maybe it was time to learn a little more about the world around me. After all… I hadn't had a meltdown yet. Better get everything in before it hit me.

Hoo boy. I wasn't thinking normally at all here. A plan was a plan though, even if said plan was picking a direction and taking off at a brisk yet easy trot.

The distance, I quickly found, was easy to cover. My body was longer, and I was probably? Taking more paces in a minute than a regular human pace. Moving through the field wasn't hard at all, especially since I was lower to the ground and could see everything coming up much easier. The taller grasses I just loped around, no sweat.

As I ran, bits of conversation filtered through in the back of my mind, an undercurrent of uncertainty. The… Other, they'd implied that I would somehow… know this place. I definitely wasn't recognizing this field. But, they'd also implied that I wouldn't even be on the Earth I knew. To quote, not my Earth, but somehow I was still expected to find it familiar? And that meant… what, exactly? A version of Earth where I was born a dog instead of a human? Fifty years in the past? Fifty years in the future? Middle Earth? Khorvaire? Azeroth? No, I couldn't possibly be in some fictional video game world, that was just ridiculous.

A new scent made my nose twitch. Along the way I'd been learning, and putting to memory, each new scent I encountered, a process almost on autopilot it was so easy, but this one made me pause because it'd been smelling little traces it of in patches all around the field, but hadn't found anything to put a name to it. Nothing else to do, so I stopped and sniffed the air for a better sample. Something, something… oh, _that _was sweat. I remembered that without being a dog.

Wait, sweat? Yes. That was… absolutely human sweat. Never mind how I could pinpoint human sweat exactly, I was more excited that I was sniffing an actual human. This was it! This was a chance to pinpoint things more accurately! I started running again, this time following my nose. There, up ahead, over a little hill.

What I did find was more crows, wheeling about and hopping around something on the ground. They also saw me, probably would a mile away in my haste since I wasn't trying to be stealthy, but the sight of them did bring a stab of panic; the mixing scent of unmoving human sweat and carrion bird could make for a very bad connotation. Therefore, I didn't slow; I barreled directly for them with barred teeth and a very real growl rising up from the back of my throat. Without even thinking it the growl evolved and burst out as a loud and angry _bark, _and the crows promptly scattered. Feathers flew, they squawked, and I chased them until they were well away, leaving me panting and triumphant. I'd scared them away! Me! All by myself! I was _invincible! _I was—

Very much acting like a dog without realizing, and had overshot the maybe-human entirely. _Whoops. _Human instincts returned. Leaving the crows behind— _for now, you bastards— _I hastily retraced my steps to find a worn path cutting through the grass. This was… a road! A footpath? It was unpaved, smelling like dirt and dust and more mystery scents, but more importantly, the scent that could only mean _human _was stronger, overpowering the faded patches I'd picked up along the way until finally I stumbled through the other side and found, lying prone in the grass by the side of the road, a _person. _

A person! A real live person! A… person…

A…

That was…

This wasn't.

Was that.

It was a woman. She was unconscious. She was dressed in a purple overcoat with eyes along the sleeves and gold trim fastenings on its front, and her hair was as white as snow. She smelled like sand, and a tingling scent like electricity, an another scent that I couldn't place. Something cold, something... dark.

I… recognized her. Didn't for a moment, because it brought a strange sort of double memory, one where I was on the ground in her place and looking up, until it clicked and I stopped _dead. _

This is Robin, said my unconscious thought. A knee-jerk reaction. The name went to the face, the scent went to the catalog, and on a very simple level that's all there was to it. On a much more complicated level, though, was the rational side screaming that _this could not possibly be real. _Was this… Robin? Was this _Robin? _

...Was this _Awakening?_

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

* * *

/here for Awakening SI and that's that. :)


	2. Chapter 2

.II.

* * *

.

Birds were singing. The sun moved slowly across the sky. Insects hummed in the air from flower to flower, and my hind legs were starting to cramp as I sat staring at an impossible person lying on the ground in front of me. I couldn't figure out what else to do. Once the name had popped up I just sort of… froze.

This was Robin in front of me. Wasn't it? _The _Robin? _Or _an insanely good cosplayer who'd decided to take an oddly positioned nap on the side of the road, but some strange gut instinct informed me that no, this wasn't fake or a joke, this was _real, _and worst of all I couldn't even find the heart to argue with my own gut on this. I mean… I wasn't even human anymore. I wasn't _home _anymore. If I were human I'd probably be hyperventilating… or maybe not, if the strange mood suppressor spell I had on me was still in place. It was hard, remembering exactly had been said in… the place before, but… I think the Other had said it would wear off eventually…? Or maybe I just couldn't panic the same has humans could anymore. I leaned forward and just… lay down on the ground, dropping my head between my paws, and sighed— a huge gust of a sigh, with significant expansion of my… flanks… urgh. This body was weird.

Robin, though. If this was her, and she was here, and I was _also _here, then? I really was in a fictional video game world. _Damn _the Other, I thought bitterly, for drawing from my interests indeed. Okay… it could have been worse. I _did _know this world, and maybe that gave me some kind of edge, but it was still worrisome that I woke right next to an unconscious main character, implying that her story hadn't even started yet.

A thought struck me. Her arms were resting on either side of her body, palms up, so with some awkward pawing I flipped her hands over to check the skin on the back. Sure enough— to some relief— the mark of Grima was there on one, the lines a same purple color as a bruise. There was… a slightly bad smell to it. Faint, but lingering, a heavy cloying scent that was… cold. And dark. Like what I'd picked up before. I still didn't know what word to attach to it, but it made me uneasy.

Well… the presence of the mark meant… that this was the good timeline though, didn't it? Theoretically? In that maybe I didn't have to worry about the end of the world at any point in the future, but, well. This wasn't a game. Not like before. There wouldn't be save files here. Just because there wasn't a guaranteed bad end didn't mean that things would go _well _if I stuck around…

Oh. _Oh. Why_ was I including myself in the narrative already? It was just that, this wasn't a game, and there was nothing keeping me from turning on the spot and trotting off and leaving this all behind before I got, I don't know, _involved _or something. In _wars _and stuff. Assuming everything would just play out like it was supposedly supposed to and _argh why this. _

There were too many hypotheticals here, all pushing in and I couldn't help but despair again— sharp and agonizing. If I were human, if I were… _not this_, I'd probably sit down and cry, but now I couldn't even do that thanks to _stupid mysterious beings _and their _stupid _blank dm tables. Nothing to do but stamp my paws, and whine— I was starting to tremble. The whines turned to whimpers, my tail tucked between my legs as I hunkered down into myself, on the edge of finding out of canine things could have panic attacks after all, only for all of it to just… melt away again. Somewhat unbalanced by the drain of emotions, I blinked rapidly, feeling a little empty and a little light headed. This mood dampener thing… yeah, it was getting on my nerves.

Okay. _Right, _okay, Robin. Right now, for lack of better things to think about it, I'd just assume that fate would do its thing and keep everything on course, whether I was here or not. She hadn't moved or woken up or anything during my mini-panic; it was almost weird now, how still she was… weird_er_, anyway. She was… she was breathing, right? I checked a little anxiously. Yes, she was— I could actually hear the air circulating in her lungs as her chest rose and fell, and she also still smelled _alive _so there was… that. It really was just like she was sleeping. Well, she was. Sleeping off whatever backlash Lucina and Grima's time rewind had caused. She looked awfully peaceful, just lying on the ground; I felt a little jealous. Unlike me, she was going to wake up more or less stress free, and definitely not questioning her place in the universe, or whether or not she was dreaming the whole thing.

_Should _I try to wake her up? I fidgeted a little; the thought of it oddly disconcerting, because that just didn't seem _right. _Chrom was supposed to wake her up, and he wasn't here yet. It wasn't really my place to do so otherwise. Then again, free will— just because some video game dictated current events didn't mean I had to follow it, not when I was now part of said current events. A little giddy, as my pawing at her hands hadn't triggered anything, I did something decidedly canine-like and stuck my nose into her ear with a loud _snuff. _No reaction. Neither did tentatively digging at her coat, carefully so my nails didn't scrape _too _harshly; still nothing. Well.

How long was this going to take? Being in the wide open field that we were, scanning the immediate horizon brought me nothing. I tracked no movement. There were a few small hills here and there that might block some visibility— or, maybe I should stop thinking like a human and take advantage of my new senses. Taking a deep breath, I picked one side of the road and… how should I do it? Well… just let it come naturally, I suppose. I just need to get in tune with skills that were already there, but to help out just a bit I shut my eyes and let my ears and nose take over. At once, everything filtered in— it already had been, but now that I actively wanted to pay attention and stopped focusing so much on my sight like a _human _would…

A whole world was moving around me, and I didn't even needs eyes to know what was happening. First, the loudest sounds were the _thump thump _of a heartbeat— mine, working just fine, and a more slower and sedate pace that had to be Robin's. My ears swiveled suddenly as I caught a different _thump, _but that was from a rabbit again, somewhere far off to the side of us. As well as other rodents, rummaging around in the tall grasses. Somewhere birds were singing, across the field, but swooping up and down catching insects humming around plants and flowers. Swallows then? I heard their wings beating as they soared back up into the sky. These were all natural sounds, though— my creature brain was content; no danger present, nothing sneaking up and around trying to get the drop on me and the unconscious human next to me.

I didn't want natural ambience, though, I wanted the _un_natural sounds. The not-found-in-nature sounds; the _human _sounds. So I strained, sifting through everything else for _more. _For something _else. _Robin couldn't be lying here forever, so there had to be something out there for me to pick up on…

_There. _

A beat in the distance. Another series of thuds against the ground, like something hitting repeatedly against it. they were heavier though, as if… accentuated. Bearing into the ground like it were carrying something heavy on its back. If I listened a little closer, my ears full forward to pick up just a little bit more, then on top of that was a grinding sort, clank? Like metal on metal.

Oh. heavy metal. Grinding together— armor! And the footsteps, a four-footed creature— a horse! An _armored _horse!

No way could it be anyone else.

I moved. Sprang off my behind and started running down the road. It didn't sound very far away, but then my hearing was way, way better than it used to be. As I ran I stuck my nose into the air and picked up more definitive proof, especially as the wind blew against me and carried everything more clearly. This time I could smell the metal, and the horse itself, as well as the _people _scent I learned from Robin. Three distinct variations, too! …That was weird. Whatever.

Sure enough, I crested a mound of a hill, and that's when I saw them— blue and yellow, silver and brown, clearing into the figures of Chrom, Lissa, and Frederick themselves. Oh _man, _this was happening. It was _really _them? Chrom and Lissa were casually chatting; Lissa suddenly laughed, a clear high sound to my ears. Frederick followed up a little way behind them, mounted on the great armored horse I'd heard first. He also seemed casual, on hand loosely hold the reigns, but… there was an axe strapped to his steed's side, handle easily in reach. More than ready to react to perceived dangers.

Uh… would the danger include me? I slowed to a stop, feeling something close to stage fright as I thought this over. They were heading right for Robin, so there wasn't much I needed to do here, but that also meant there wasn't really any need for me to show myself. Then again, if I was some kind of dog, that had to count for something. Dogs weren't threatening…? It gave me a unique new way of approaching suspicion free, maybe…

As I stood thinking, the regular ol' humans hadn't noticed me at all. However, I'd forgotten about the horse— something _also _with a higher sensory threshold, and much more expressive about it. Said horse snorted loudly; it reared its neck up, ears flicking back, and the rhythm of its hooves changed to add an extra few steps before it briefly dug at the ground. Something had spooked it. Something, I realized with horror, that probably was me. Frederick read the horse's mood in an instant, and his casual ease was gone; his back went rigid with tension. Chrom and Lissa were a little slower to catch on, reacting more to the great knight's reaction than the horses, but seeing as the horse was looking _right _a_t me— _

"Oh!" Lissa spotted me first, correctly following the line of the horse's view— Frederick had started doing a more general scan of their surroundings— and pointed with a wide gesture of her arm. "Look, Chrom— is that a wolf?"

…_What? _

Okay, they spoke… what sounded like English, thank god, but— sorry, wolf? _Wolf? _I… wasn't a dog of some kind? I knew my fur had seemed a little odd—

Frederick wasted no time, surging ahead and around to take point. Seeing as how the big armored horse was _very _much a threat to my lone self, I turned back on instinct, flinching away from the sight of the intimidating murder hooves moving closer to me. Shit, this wasn't what I'd been going for here.

"Milord, stay close," Frederick spoke, having drawn his axe— nope nope nope— as he bodily blocked the two my view. "There may be a pack hiding nearby." His eyes narrowed as he said so.

Uh… I craned my head around in disbelief, wondering how he could think that when there were literally no places to hide said wolf pack. Chrom seemed to think so too, as the man himself worked his way back around Frederick's protective posturing to get a good look himself.

"Frederick… it's a single wolf. " He sounded amused. "There's worse things than wolves out there to be worried about. You saw it flinch, it's more afraid of you than you are of it."

"Be as it may," the knight grumbled, looking dismayed as Lissa also blatantly disregarded his protection.

"I've never seen one so close like this!" she looked on with awe, peering at me closely, though she tilted her had after a moment in thought. "Such a pretty coat, but… _is _it a wolf? It looks… different."

"From the size of it, and shape of the head, clearly it's no dog," Frederick said, "Granted, not a breed I've seen before. Perhaps a northern breed? They're a hardier sort there, I hear…"

"Begs the question why it would be so far south." Chrom spoke now. Our eyes met— he seemed neutral, but… slowly, his hand was slipping from Falchion's hilt. He hadn't been so casual after all, but the longer our impromptu standoff, the more I saw his posture ease. "It's watching us," he said. "See how still it is— I wonder what it wants." Our eyes met— it took me by surprise. His gaze was calm and steady, and somehow, some of my apprehension faded away, just a bit.

Whether or not I was a wolf, that was a question for some other time; for however long this lasted, I was caught up in the prologue of Awakening now. Yes, I was now worried about taking an axe to the face, but Frederick seemed to be the last person truly suspicious of me. Well, they weren't leaving, and they hadn't immediately attacked— clearly, it was time to bring out the big guns. Channeling the energy of every cheerful, joyful dog I'd ever met, I flattened my ears, lowered my head, and wagged my tail like my life depended on it.

Lissa audibly gasped.

"Is it…? You don't think—" she said, as I started making my way across the space between us; however, Frederick spurred his horse forward. I yelped—involuntarily, the reaction slipped out before I could help it— and quickly darted back. _No _getting stomped to death, thank you. Dammit, Frederick! How much more disarming could I be? Luckily to my relief, it seemed I'd gotten through to the person who mattered most.

"Hold, Frederick!" Chrom held a hand in the air, stopping the knight in his place. "I really don't think it's going to attack us. You just saw— have you ever seen a wolf act in such a manner?"

"No… it could be a clever ruse, to catch one off guard!" Really? Chrom also gave him a look.

"Lissa may be right. Perhaps it's no wolf after all. Not entirely. I think, just maybe…"

To my delight, he proceeded to make the universal gesture known by dog lovers everywhere— stooping over slightly, he held out a loose fist in my direction. "Here, boy. Come here."

Sigh. I wasn't a boy. An in was an in, though. While I kept a wary eye out for the horse, and kept my ears down, I went. The gap closed as I very, very cautiously… bumped my nose against Chrom's glove, wagged my tail again, and stuck my head right under his fingers. My reward was a wide smile and… a head pat.

"Well, that wasn't so bad, wasn't it?" Chrom said cheerfully over his shoulder; Frederick huffed. Meanwhile, he scratched behind my ears which…. Felt nice! Too nice! So _this _is how it went for all the dogs I'd ever petted before. Any leftover apprehension in the air finally dissipated, and Lissa gleefully joined the petting to sink her fingers right into the fur on my back.

"Oh, it's a lot silkier than it looks," she said happily, "A tame wolf… who would have thought?"

"It's certainly odd," said Chrom, "Seeing him up close like this, maybe he's not all wolf? Maybe there's a little bit of dog in there as well. I wouldn't be surprised."

"But then where's his owner? …Chrom, it's a girl! She's a girl!"

"Ah? So she is. Apologies, girl. Good dog."

My tail wagged the more they petted, almost entirely on its own. Frederick continued to glower, but he'd deflated all the same. Though he did clear his throat, drawing their attention back to him.

"Before this goes any further… I hope you aren't getting any ideas about bringing it back with us," he sighed, "I suppose I can hardly stop you…"

"Can we keep her?" Lissa clasped her hands in delight, "Please say yes! She's so sweet. And obviously she's all alone out here. No wonder she walked right up to us. I bet she was lonely." Chrom only hummed thoughtfully, but said nothing otherwise. Hard to tell if he was considering it or not, but I decided to take this as my cue to end the petting session, and backed away. There was still the issue of _Robin _just up the way and all; Lissa made a sad noise as her hand fell away. "Oh no, don't go, girl…"

Right. Okay. I couldn't use my words here; I'd have to rely entirely on charades. But I hadn't grown up on animal movies for nothing. With _Lassie _in mind, I trotted away, then stopped. Wagged my tail, looked meaningfully away and back, hoping they'd get the hint.

"…I think we're supposed to follow." Quick on the uptake, Chrom's curiosity was definitely captured, enough that he followed with little to no hesitation. Lissa came right on his heels, followed by a deeply unhappy Frederick, resigned to follow where his charges went.

Man, this was _very _surreal. Me, former human, body locked as… something, leading three main characters along to where the fourth was passed out, waiting for fate to work its magic. At least they were following. At least I hadn't somehow scared them off and screwed things up from the start, because that would have been awful for all sorts of reasons— the least I could do was make sure the beginning of whatever this was went off without a hitch, at least for Robin's sake.

It wasn't hard to miss her distinctive white hair, and the purple coat did stand out rather distinctly against the green grass. Frederick saw first up on his steed, as I heard a sharp intake of breath; then Chrom noticed, then Lissa, who made a small cry of her own.

"There's someone on the ground!"

"I see them! Quickly, Lissa, your stave—"

"Wait, milord, let me—" At last, Frederick dismounted with a heavy thud—

"Not now, Frederick!"

Huh. I watched with some bewilderment as Robin was promptly swarmed by two well-meaning shepards and one suspicious knight, feeling as if the reaction here was greater than the one I remembered in the original prologue… Or maybe it was the game itself that had downplayed the natural reaction to finding an unconscious person on the ground.

Ah well.

* * *

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"oh shit that weirdanimal SI fanfic updated again" – the person reading this fic, probably

Bear with me I swear I'm going somewhere with this if someone over in the One Piece archive can write a fic where they reincarnate as dog then I can do the same thing over here in the video game corner dang it /shakes fist

For folks who might not recognize the term though, a laguz is a race from the Tellius games ie Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn! Do with that information what you will (feels prudent to share now and prevent assumptions? It's a FE fic through and through lol)


	3. Chapter 3

.III.

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* * *

"She doesn't seem to be injured. Not visibly, anyway."

Sitting back on her heels, Lissa pursed her lips in a thoughtful frown. In one hand she held a stave, currently inert, that hadn't made so much as a peep in the magical sense, and Robin remained unconscious.

"What happened, then? How did she get here?" Chrom knelt at his sister's side, taking in everything with muted worry. It had been more pronounced as the trio descended, but once they confirmed that Robin was, in fact, still breathing, the edge of the initial panic had dulled some. Lissa huffed.

"Why're you asking me? I don't know any more than you!" she chided, "It's like… It's like she's just asleep, but normal people don't fall asleep by the side of the road! Right out in the open! That's just asking for bad stuff to happen."

"I don't like it." Thus far, Frederick had remained cautious, hovering beyond with thinly veiled suspicion. "It's too convenient. It stinks of a set-up to me."

"As much as I appreciate your caution, Frederick, I really do, I truly think that there's some greater mystery at work here," Chrom sighed, "If only because there can't possibly be danger at _every _corner. There is caution, and then there's just paranoia. Sometimes an unconscious person by the wayside might be exactly what it looks like."

"I'm being _prudent_, not paranoid," Frederick grumbled under his breath, but let the matter drop. It didn't stop him from shooting yet another look to where I currently lay quietly in the grass at Chrom's side, taking in the whole examination with drooping ears and very mixed feelings on still being present. "This is your fault," he hissed. I met his eyes and wagged my tail halfheartedly.

Rude of him to stare. I was just being _helpful _out of some sense of… I don't know, practicalism or pragmatism, or whatever. It was nice feeling like I'd made a meaningful contribution in a matter that needed absolutely no help in the first place. Because on one hand, I was struck with awe at the… _plot, _happening in front of me, but also fully aware that there was nothing keeping me here for it. Robin hadn't really needed me to lead Chrom to her or anything, but… but? I was delaying myself.

Chrom was brushing a careful hand over Robin's forehead.

"There's no fever?" he said, the uptick to his words twisting the statement into a question, "I'm starting to think we're not getting much done here."

"We have to do something, though!"

"What do you propose we do?" The short silence was one of equal parts thoughtfulness (Chrom) and horror (Frederick.) Two enterprising sets eyes turned on the horse standing innocently nearby. Frederick blanched.

"Absolutely not—"

"We can't just leave her here," Lissa protested, and Chrom nodded.

"Southtown is only just ahead, and we're Shepards. If we ignored this poor soul, it would be remiss of our duties—"

My ears pricked up midway through Chrom's noble speech, because I'd heard a sound. A hitch of breath, in what had previously been a slow, unbroken pattern. Movement, as fingers twitched, curling in on themselves.

"…ah?"

It was the tiniest voice I'd ever heard, but I'd heard it. Ears flicked forward as I lifted my head. As did Lissa and Chrom, falling silent in surprise, but not for long as Robin slowly blinked in the sunlight, up at last.

"You're awake!" Lissa said with very real relief— Chrom exhaled with equal relief as he gazed down, letting his posture slip some.

"Where…?" Robin's voice— _Robin's voice— _was soft, but thick with confusion. She was still coming to, I guess, but it didn't seem to stop her from jumping right into things. With some struggle she braced her arms enough to reach a sitting position, swaying and still slightly crossed-eyed, not quiet able to focus. This was where Chrom made his move— a hand went to her shoulder to steady her, but also to keep her from moving too quickly than she could handle.

"Easy there." His voice was… warm. "There are better places to sleep than on the ground, you know— you had us worried."

Gosh. It wasn't even directed at me, but there was an inherent sort of kindness to his tone that was relaxing me even as I lay still. Robin was not immune either; I'd heard, hell, had smelled the spike of panic as her pulse jumped, but a single word from Chrom and she'd hesitated. There was really something to be said of the… _realness, _of the people around me, in the way they held themselves and in their very voice— Matt Mercer had nothing on _Chrom, _as himself, as he stood and offered a steady hand to Robin, as he smiled— "Can you stand?"

Another trace amount of hesitation. But Robin took the offered hand, allowing herself to be hauled to her feet, swaying but ultimately steady.

"…thank you, Chrom," she said slowly, her voice distant as she let the name slip from her lips. I couldn't directly see Chrom's reaction at this point, but I did see Frederick's as he stiffened perceptively and narrowed his eyes.

"You know who I am?" said Chrom, curious, seemingly nothing else.

"I… maybe? I'm sorry, I don't… I-I'm sorry. I know your name but I don't know how…" she trailed away. "It just came to me…"

"Curious…" Gosh, but he was so noncommittal about this. "Then could you share your name with us? And how you came to be here?"

Robin tried to say so, she really did. Her mouth opened, the light was on, but mid-breath she froze, blanking out right in front of us. A full minute she seemed to struggle with it, before her mouth closed and I smelled her panic again, with an ever increasing heartbeat.

"I can't remember," she said, astonished, "I truly… I can't remember."

"You don't know your own name?" ah, there it was— skepticism, even for Chrom, no matter how hard he tried to smooth it out.

"I-I'm sorry—" Robin looked abruptly around. She looked at Lissa, jumped as she noticed Frederick, and for a brief second rested her eyes on me— a small thrill, as I made eye contact— but it was vacant and passed right over without a second glance. Predictably. Yet, I wilted; I'd stood when Robin did, happy and more than a little eager, but being so summarily passed over invoked a certain sort of sadness. I felt my tail and ears droop while Robin struggled to continue her train of thought. "Where am I, exactly?"

Lissa broke in with a gasp, here. "Wait, I know this!" she exclaimed, "It's called amnesia! It's where you lose all your past memories!"

"What?" said a mystified Robin; Frederick snorted loudly.

"It's called a load of _Pegasus dung," _he sneered, (…snrk. He really said that,) "And you really must think we're fools if you expect us to fall for it."

"W-What? I—"

"Come now. You remember milord's name but not your own? Awfully convenient, isn't it?"

"I-I swear it's the truth!"

"As _if—" _

"Peace, Frederick." Chrom halted conversation with a raised hand. Frederick quieted, but not happily. Poor Robin was flustered. Lissa looked between everyone with worry. Chrom scratched his head.

"So… you really don't remember your name?"

"No…"

"Or how you came here?"

"I don't, no."

"Hm. Perhaps do you remember her?"

Her? Who, Lissa? Wait, no… not Lissa. Chrom was pointing at _me. _My ears perked up. I quickly sat, as Robin blinked.

"…No?" she said, a little more hesitant now that I'd been pointed out.

"A shame. She was the one who led us to you. I thought maybe she was yours."

Sorry, what?

"Sorry, what?" Robin echoed in eerie harmony with my inner thoughts; now she stared at me, wide-eyed, tilting her head as she no doubt tried to drag up some kind of memory that would prove the statement true, while in the meantime I inwardly panicked that I was the only one in the group who knew it was, in fact, false. I hadn't thought about that. I'd wanted to help, that was all— of _course _it would look like that, what with how I'd tried my best to be as doggish as possible; dog leading aid to downed owner? Shoot, that _was _a trope.

"If only from how concerned she seemed," Chrom was saying, "And how she remains now… she seems too well behaved to be a wild animal."

"I—I really couldn't say," said Robin, "Though if she helped me, I guess I should be grateful. Thank you." The last part was directed to me. She said it so very earnestly. My tail wagged without bidding as I felt oddly very pleased, but… Robin as my, uh, owner? It wasn't true. It felt weird, and I couldn't really defend myself, and yet… and _yet… _

This was my _in. _Robin sure as hell couldn't say otherwise, not with her full memory wipe, (and oh boy was that a whole issue I wouldn't think about right now,) and _I _couldn't say so, not as I was… was it selfish, I thought a little desperately, if I seized an opportunity like this? What else could I even do in this world—run off into the distance and live wild and free? Knowing everything I did, assuming it all even applied in the first place? The voices of the others washed over me— on memories, on what to do, on where they would go— familiar and yet so very alien as I whined softly.

Take advantage. Join a legend in progress. Run away. Escape responsibility that wasn't mine to take in the first place. This was a damn video game, but it was also my _life _now? And I wasn't keen to lose it again, not when I still had the whole fuzzy tangle of emotions to sort through on that issue. Why was it so hard to commit? _Damn _the stupid Other—

"Um. Uh, girl?"

Robin's soft voice jolted me out of my inner monologue, and startled, I found that things had changed. Chrom and Lissa were a few steps off down the road; Frederick was currently hauling himself back into the saddle, and Robin was looking down at me over her shoulder because while everyone else had started moving, I'd apparently stayed where I was.

"Something wrong?"

"Oh. Just… uh, she? Wasn't coming, so I thought—" Robin bit her lip. She looked… haggard, I realized, worry creased between her eyes as she extended a hesitant hand towards me. Waiting for me to respond. I looked at the hand, back up at her, maybe a little surprised that she wanted to interact with me, until I saw something there in her expression, something that crumbled the longer I stood still.

And I couldn't really wallow in self-pity anymore, at that.

She flinched anyway when I bumped my nose into her loose fist. But when I moved past and leaned against her leg, tail wagging as I went, Robin smiled for the first time since her awakening. A watery sort of smile, but a smile all the same as she brushed her fingers into the fur of my back.

"Okay," she breathed, "Okay. Let's go, girl."

And we did.

* * *

Conversation carried as it did— Stilted and awkward at first, between people trying to find a common ground. Lissa pointed various things out, flowers and bugs and others, testing Robin's memory to see how extensive her 'amnesia' was. Frederick had resumed his position at the rear, but his glowering wasn't subtle, or even meant to be. Robin walked with rigid shoulders as a result, no doubt feeling his eyes burn into her back and acutely aware how easy it would be for him to surge up and flank her.

Meanwhile, I padded sedately at Robin's side, and tried not to think about the smell of smoke wafting in from the distance.

Southtown, as expected, was on fire. However, it was not enough in distance for the human eye; the field had transitioned into scrubby forest and gentle hills, and a road that started sloping downward. Maybe there were plumes of smoke, but apparently not large or dark enough to be noticed or maybe the fire just hadn't ramped up enough yet. This time I couldn't run off and hope they'd follow as easily; Robin was one thing, but predicting the attack on a town… I wasn't sure how to swing that. Especially if it might reflect on Robin now. I was still half-panicking that somehow the others would decide I wasn't supposed to be here after all, or that Robin would specifically recall that she'd never owned a pet in her life let alone a wolf hybrid thing no matter how well behaved I was—

Speaking of, I guess I also couldn't run off due to the forced pace I was stuck in. Robin's fingers were entwined in my fur. It seemed she was taking some comfort in my presence; she aimlessly petted me every now and then, always resuming her hold before I could slip away, or when Chrom (or Frederick) asked her questions that she couldn't answer. Especially when talk of prisoners came up, no matter how Chrom and Lissa assured her otherwise.

"Ylisse? Is that where we are?" she was saying, my ears flicking up at the familiar line.

"Ha! Someone pay the actress. She plays the part well," Frederick scoffed. Chrom sighed up ahead, quietly enough that I was probably the only one who heard.

"Yes, that is the name of the Halidom we currently travel in," he said, just loudly enough to muffle the Great Knight's words. "Our ruler is the Exalt Emmeryn."

"And… what is it you do, in Ylisse?" Robin asked hesitantly.

"Us?"

"We're Shepherds!" Lissa chimed in, cheerfully twirling in place as she walked, impressive with her iron skirt. "And it's lucky that we're the ones who found you. Bandits would have been no fun."

"Shepherds?" Robin puzzled over that one. "As in, you tend sheep? …fully armed?"

"We're not the usual sort of shepherds," smiled Chrom, "Seeing as we tend a certain kind of flock. Certainly it's more dangerous, if you ask Frederick the Wary here."

"A title I wear with pride." For once, said knight sounded un-grumpy. "At least one of us should see fit to be cautious." There was uncomfortable silence. My fur tugged as Robin clenched her hand some, then loosened.

"They're lucky to have you then," she said, a steady voice that masked the faint tremble her body couldn't hide, "I can't blame you for your caution when I… having nothing to vouch for myself, really."

I wasn't in a position to crane my head around to see Frederick's reaction, but there w_as_ another short pause. Then—

"…I have every wish to trust you, stranger," he said at last. "My station dictates otherwise. Until then—"

"No, I understand," Robin said, but relaxed somewhat. "I can't like it, but I can understand." Some of the strange feeling to the air dissipated. I bumped my head against Robin's hip (because I was just that tall) in solidarity, and was rewarded when her hand moved to scratch between my ears (oh yeah. Still good stuff.)

"Hopefully something of this matter can be cleared up soon, anyhow," Chrom said. "Southtown is just ahead. It'll be better than a field at any rate."

The wind shifted right then. It _had _to be noticeable now, what with the acrid scent tickling at my nose and sticking to the back of my throat. This time it held true—Chrom stilled as the breeze passed him by, his attention abruptly shifting from Robin and back to the road ahead. A pause. Then a sharp intake of breath, because smoke was finally visible in the sky.

"Gods, no," he breathed— "Frederick, Lissa, with me, _now!" _

Lissa started from where she'd wrinkled her nose, mouth open to say something, but caught on quickly. Frederick needed no other prompting; with a well-placed quick, his horse surged into action— "Yes, milord!"—quickly bringing him on point, but not without one last comment over his shoulder, a brief and fleeting look as he passed us by: "And what about her?"

"Unless she's on fire too _it can wait!" _

And all three left us in this dust.

Me? I whined. Frantic energy swept through my legs; in that moment I wanted to _run _alongside the _running people, _some canine instinct calling for me to join the hunt, but I held myself back, and looked to Robin. The person who I'd have to defer to if I wanted to keep this charade up after all. She was staring open mouthed, shaken by the turn things had taken, and had done nothing.

Ha ha. She was at the same crossroads I'd just been at, and I could fiercely sympathize compared to before when it was so easy to follow dialogue prompts and let the story proceed as it did. I had none of that now… neither did Robin. She could, if she wanted, turn and run, run in the opposite direction and not look back. I don't think I'd blame her if she did.

Robin closed her mouth, and I waited. Her hand left my fur, and went to her side instead— where her sword hung, as it had all along. The others had never taken it. And I hadn't forgotten about the cloying scent of ozone clinging to her clothes, radiating from her _other _side, where a certain book hung.

"Right," she said, "_Right." _Her fists clenched. Her first step was sure. When she looked back at me, she didn't look the same. Now there was… well, a spark in her eye. A solidness to her stance.

"_Let's go, girl_." The same words as before, but entirely different intonation. I wanted to answer her— Robin was _brave, _wasn't she? I still questioned myself, knowing everything, while meanwhile she knew nothing and had made the decision all on her own… How could I turn away from that?

So we ran. It was easy keeping pace with smooth, loping strides as Robin picked up speed until she was flying down the road to Southtown, coat billowing around her sides."_Wait!" _she called as we sprinted through the city limits, trading dirt road from cobbled street— there were townsfolk cowering against the walls, coughing from the smoke that now hung heavy in the air. "Wait for me—"

"You!?"

Chrom. Up ahead, turning with wide eyes as Robin skidded to a stop, breathing heavily. "You followed us?" I heard a clank of steel, and a scream— apparently Frederick had gone w_ay _ahead. Oh geez, that was a person screaming—

"Don't ask why, I couldn't tell you," Robin wheezed.

"Then why—" Chrom started to say, but he was cut off from the words she tripped over in her haste to speak.

"Because I have a sword," she said, "And I-I _think _I know how to use it. If I can fight— then I can _help._ If you'll have me, that is. "

Rush finished, she wheezed, but looked Chrom steadily in the eye. Whatever he saw there, I guess he liked it. He nodded.

"Then we're glad to have you," he said, warmly despite the scenario, "Strength in numbers."

"Yes… yes, of course!" she took a deep breath, steadying herself, but just as the other turned back ahead— "Chrom!"

"Yes?"

"My name," she said, "It's Robin. I remembered."

Oh. gosh. Not once had Robin introduced herself, not like how I remembered. And I'd taken for granted that I knew her name anyway. Of course the others wouldn't have the luxury. Chrom, though, on hearing it he smiled.

"Stay close, then, Robin," was all he said, amidst the smoke and distant screaming as if we weren't in an actual battleground.

Into the smoke we ran.

* * *

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Oh geez uh can Laguz speak in animal form… uh… WOLF SONG… 3! *jazz hands*

Wait I'm a chapter too late for that joke.

/for now Kirsten has yet to learn all her limits. She'll pick up the proverbial new tricks in time.

A general rule I like to keep for myself is if I need to 'rewrite' scenes with pre-existing dialogue for SI stuff, I take into account that things are slightly different and no conversation is exactly the same, therefore just by having an extra presence or slight change of events, the thought process of the characters is nudged enough that their dialogue also mostly changes. Then no one has to sit through a total scene recap, and I hopefully get to keep things fresh and interesting while providing new nuances/outside perspective (barring super iconic lines that are just too important to cut.)

(on the downside, I always worry if I focus too much on micro-expressions.)

(bleh.)

(I appreciate all of you.)


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